Young women should not go alone on dark nights, even in Oxfordshire. But any prowling maniac would have had more than his work cut out if he had accosted Anathema Device. She was a witch, after all. And precisley because she was a witch, and therefore sensible, she put little faith in protective amulets ands spells; she saved it all for a foot-long bread knife which she kept in her belt.-Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Good Omens

Logged

For the love of meat, shut up! No one wants to hear your emo character background! My hands are literally melting away, and I'm complaining less than you!—K'seliss, Goblins

"Nachos? When did I put nachos in my boot?" - My Friend Charlie, smelling his shoes at the gaming table.

*Busts into Taxidermist's back door* "I'm lookin' for the Black Lotus!" - Me"Who the hell are you?" - Taxidermist (GM)"They're called the Lotus Dragons" - Dru, the GM"Oh, then I cast Charm Person on the Taxidermist." - Me

"I have learned much in my studies." - Arq, the Changeling, trying to maintan his disguise as an Elderly Scholar after blasting a Kobold with Eldritch Energy.

"I have the strength and intelligence of a tank!" - Me

"If it hurts it means you're still alive." - I think it was the Russian guy from DOA3

--Here’s my favorite form of government. I don’t think we should be governing ourselves. What we need is a king, and every now and then if the king’s not doing his job, we kill him.

--I think someone could make a lot of money if they set up a little stand at the Grand Canyon and sold Yo-Yos with 500-foot strings.

--Sometimes they say the winds are calm. Well, if they’re calm, they’re not really f@%#$%$ winds, are they?

--Most of the time people feel okay. Probably it’s because at that moment they’re not actually dying.

--After decades of research murder investigators now say that in most cases husbands kill wives, wives kill husbands, children kill parents, and parents kill children. Want to know what I say? "No s**t Sherlocks!"

--You know what you rarely see? A ninety-three-year-old guy working on his resume.

--I hope no one ever asks me to show them the ropes. I have no idea where they are. Maybe I could pull some strings to find out.

--If there really are multiple universes, what do they call the thing they’re all a part of?

--I think a great title for a travel book would be Doorway to Norway

--I never worry that all hell will break loose. My concern is that only part of hell will break loose and be much harder to detect.

--Want to know what your cat is really thinking right now? “I sure would love to eat a rat right about now”

--And remember, if you practice throwing a discus alone, you have to go get it yourself.

Ah, how I have come to love that sense of accomplishment and victory that I get when I pull the wool over the eyes of a clever player character. What DM Triumphs have you had?

Some of mine:1. Finally killing an incredibly powerful, lucky, annoying player's character.2. Finally achieving a TPK (Total Party Kill)3. Finally achieving a TPK using only traps4. Finally working out how to make it so that d**n wizard doesn't steal the spotlight all the d**n time.

Originally Posted by Center-of-All "No, you didn't die. Defeat is far too interesting and useful a tool to be wasted on starting over. "

While it is not a sig line, though it could be, it is advice to live by. That is why, in my game system, 4 points of impairment buys "taken out of play". While this can be death, it just means the damage done puts the character out of comission for a while: coma, long lingering wound, wound with infection that causes delirium, and so on.

In playtest, the best use of this was something like this."Finally, I clipped 4 impairment on him?""Sigh. You are going to invoke death on him?""No. We go through a dance of death. I attack with renewed vigor. He parries desperately. I advance. He gives ground. He leaps away, trying to get some distance. I follow him. We go over here.. over there.. and back and forth along the edge. Then... I thrust... he twists out of the way.. he does the cartoonish waving of his arms as he tries to maintain his balance.. and slips as I reach out for him. We peer over the edge, because by now everyone else has killed off the minion. We watch him fall down the chasm towards the river. Bounce off a rocky cliff side.and again. and again.. and we lose him in the mist. "Cool. So he is dead?" (This player was in to killing things)."Nah, he is bruised, broken, and scarred, but he will be back... after a large number of adventures.""What?" other players say incredulously. "I watch Blake 7 disc 1 and this Sherlock Homes episode last weekend.""We can take the best this guy can throw at us. As long as he is alive, the GM will keep throwing him at us. We know him. We won't have to learn all this new information about the new big bad guy. He won't feel compelled to make a bigger and badder villian that we might not be able to defeat. ""Okay that was Blake 7, What about Sherlock Homes?""Oh the bad guys always survive going over the cliffs... especially if we say, "Nobody could survive that."Okay take 6 Player Points and an extra 800 xp just for scene alone and the explanation. And remind me later to get you the Prince of Amber series. I think you will like what happens to the hero.

I prefer my history dead. Dead history is writ in ink, the living sort in blood. --Rodrik Harlaw

Now it begins" said Arthur Dayne "No", Ned said sadly. "Now it ends."

“First lesson: stick them with the pointy end” -Jon

"Give me sweet lies, and keep your bitter truths." --Tyrion Lannister

"Tears are not a woman's only weapon." -Cersei Lannister

That's no law, just a sword. Happens I got one too. --Yoren

[he] pronounced it admirable. Doubtless if I showed him the content of my privy, he would pronounce it admirable as well. --Jaime

We look at mountains and call them eternal, and so they seem…but in the course of time, mountains rise and fall, rivers change their courses, stars fall from the sky, and great cities sink beneath the sea. Even gods die, we think. Everything changes. --Maester Luwin

My father is very good at doing nothing. He calls it thinking. --Arienne Martell

Cersei: (her face bruising from Robert's blow) "I shall wear this as a badge of honor." Robert Baratheon: "Wear it in silence or I'll honor you again."

Syrio Florel, to Arya: "Fear cuts deeper than swords."

The Hound: "There are no true knights, no more than there are gods. If you can't protect yourself, die and get out of the way of those who can. Sharp steel and strong arms rule this world, don't ever believe any different." Sansa: "You're awful." The Hound: "I'm honest. It's the world that's awful. Now fly away little bird, I'm sick of you peeping at me."

Tyrion the dwarf: "What sort of man do you take me for?" Cersei: "A small and twisted one."

Cersei: "Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same."

Eddard Stark: "If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look him into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die."

Tyrion: "I am sorry for your loss as well, Joffrey." King Joffrey: "What loss?" Tyrion: "Your royal father? A large fierce man with a black beard; you'll recall him if you try. He was king before you."

Varys the Spider: "There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man."

Jaime: "Even if the boy does live, he will be a cripple. Worse than a cripple. A grotesque. Give me a good clean death." Tyrion: "Speaking for the grotesques, I beg to differ. Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities."

Bran: "Can a man still be brave when he's afraid?" Eddard: "That's the only time a man can be brave."

Theon Greyjoy: "Why should a man humble himself when the world is so full of men eager to do that job for him?"

"What are these fantastic monsters doing in the cloisters under the very eyes of the brothers as they read? What is the meaning of these unclean monkeys, strange savage lions and monsters? To what purpose are here placed these creatures, half beast, half man? I see several bodies with one head and several heads with one body. Here is a quadruped with a serpent's head, there a fish with a quadruped's head, then again an animal half horse, half goat... Surely if we do not blush for such absurdities we should at least regret what we have spent on them."

Ah, how I have come to love that sense of accomplishment and victory that I get when I pull the wool over the eyes of a clever player character. What DM Triumphs have you had?

Some of mine:1. Finally killing an incredibly powerful, lucky, annoying player's character.2. Finally achieving a TPK (Total Party Kill)3. Finally achieving a TPK using only traps4. Finally working out how to make it so that d**n wizard doesn't steal the spotlight all the d**n time.

All the worlds a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts William Shakespeare

to have no heroes is to have no aspiration, to live on the momentum of the past, to be thrown back upon routine, sensuality, and narrow self Charles Horton Cooley Sociologist

Did I request thee Maker, from my clay to mould me man. Did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me. Milton Paradise Lost

“...there’s a hell of a good universe next door; let’s go”– E.E. Cummings

If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional creatures are sometimes more real then people with bodies and heartbeats Richard Bach, "Illusions"

"Lord, grant me a hard head, and a soft wall to beat it on"

“That Which Exists is Allowed.” John Lilly, The Center of the Cyclone

“With knowledge comes power. With practice comes wisdom.”

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." -- Martin Luther King

"The eye only sees what the mind is prepared to comprehend." -- Henri Bergson

"When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil." -- Max Lerner

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." -- Lord Acton

"The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think." -- Aristotle

"We cannot expect to breed respect for law and order among people who do not share the fruits of our freedom." -- Hubert Humphrey

"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell

"Life is like a grindstone - whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends on what you're made of." -- unknown

"In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current." -- Thomas Jefferson

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic. Unknown

Heroes have a infinite capacity for stupidity. Thus legends are born. Unknown

Reality is what exists when you wake up.

Pain is just the exit wound of fear leaving your body.

"Where Were You Fellows When The Paper Was Blank?" Fred Allen (1894-1956)

"The otaku, the passionate obsessive, the information age's embodiment of the connoisseur." William Gibson ""The superfluous is very necessary." -- Voltaire

It is a bad plan that admits no modification Publicist Syrus

A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting. Dr. Who Jon Pertwee

Remember, you are braver than you believe, you are stronger than you seem, and you are smarter than you think A. A. Milne

It's not denial. I'm just very selective about what I accept as reality Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

The best way to predict the future is to invent it. The X-Files

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle.

QUOTE: The story never ends. It's this part of the telling that will end. J. Michael Straczynski.

Quote: Since the universe is curved, there cannot be any truly straight answers. J. Michael Straczynski.

Quote: That's the great thing about being alive...there's always a new trauma waiting just around the corner for you to learn from and draw upon. J. Michael Straczynski.

Keep quote: Mark Twain said, "Never write a scene until you have finished it to your satisfaction." Meaning in your head. You should always play the scene over and over in your head, filling it out further and further each time, until you can play it like a movie. Then, when it's all worked out, you sit down and transcribe it. This is kinda how I work. I finish a scene, load up what I need to do in the next scene...and distract myself, here on the boards, doing something else, and gradually filling out the scene over and over until it's crystal clear. Then when you sit down to write it, it goes quickly.

*********The best writing (IMO) is natural writing, where the words on the page flow very naturally, very smoothly. Every once in a while, you pull out all thestylistic tricks, you thunder and lightning all over the page, when needed for effect...but it's the writing free of artifice that seems, for me, to work well. If you hang out with writers long enough, the really *good* ones, you learn soon enough that most of them talk exactly the way they write. Lemme give you a forinstance...when Asimov was first struggling as a writer, he had lunch with his agent one day. He was having a hard time describing things, using language to paint pictures. The agent said, "You know how Hemingway would describe the sun rising in the morning?" No, Asimov said, leaning in...how? "The sun rose in the morning."

Modify this Chekov's rule of playwriting: If there's a gun on the wall in act 1 scene 1, you must use it byact 3 scene 3. Similarly, if you fire the gun in act 3, you must show it in act one. I do try to play fair with the audience, and either hint at or point to what's coming in various ways, so that if you back up all the episodes, it's right there in front of you.

QUOTE: The storyline began millions of years ago. We're coming in in the middle of the story. But then, that can be said of all of us. J. Michael Straczynski.

Orson Scott Card once said, "And since every writer has about ten thousand pages of utter drivel in them, you might as well start now so you can get a good portion of that out of your way while you're still young. After all, you learn more about writing from writing a 100,000-word manuscript than you ever will from any writing class or writing book (and I say that as a teacher of writing classes and a writer ofwriting books)."